God is kind to His people, tender with them. He forgives us, and He provided us with the means of forgiveness when He knew how desperately we needed it. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did not do this because He saw how good we were being.
This means that when we come to commune with Him here, and with all His people, He is not thrown by the fact that we have struggled with various temptations and sins in this past week. This is not news to Him. He is not astonished, and He has not decided to reject you or throw you away.
The Bible says that we are to approach the throne of grace with boldness. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).This is truly odd to us. If it is grace we are seeking, coming to obtain mercy, then how can we possibly do it with boldness? And if we come with true boldness, then how is it mercy we are seeking? If we are seeking mercy, shouldn’t we be crawling to the throne of grace? No.
When we come to the Table together, we are finding grace to help us in our time of need. That time of need varies for each of us. Some of us are tempted sorely when we are traveling. Some of us struggle between dinner and the time the kids go down. Others have great difficulty with the boss at work, or with our neighbor two houses down.
By strengthening you here, at a Table of fellowship with Him, God is saying that in order to obtain the help you really need, in order to grow in strength and maturity, you do not need to crawl. God does not want you to crawl; He wants you to repent and grow.
Do you need strength? Do you need mercy? Then lift up your head. You are seated at this Table with Christ your King, and His seat is a seat made up of mercy, kindness and grace. Tell Him what you need and don’t be shy. Lift up your voice, and He will grant your request.